A Different Enemy
by Kaffe Kane
Summary: The Gammans and Shinra unleash the Metroids, lead by Royce to 'The Planet' in order to take an energy source more potent than Phazon. The complications of politics keep Samus from getting totally involved...or do they?
1. Chozodia

Chapter: "Chozodia"  
  
The stomach of Mother Brain's body split open, revealing a giant life-support  
  
machine, also torn through by the slash that had connected from Adam's saber.  
  
Samus was quite shocked that Adam stood in the way of her Brain-Power attack,  
  
and still had the strength to attack Mother Brain the way he did.  
  
They both watched as the giant robot supporting the brain fell to the ground.  
  
The eyes of the mask on Mother Brain's face glow with multiple colors as  
  
it repeats,  
  
(WHat-DO-YOU-FigHT-FOR-What-DO-YOU-FIGHT-Fo-WHAT-do-YOu-FIGHT-WHAT-DO-You-  
  
IGHt-WHAT-DO-YOu-WHAt-dO-what) The eyes then fade to black as the machinery  
  
stops running altogether. Mother Brain was dying now, unable to use her  
  
tremendous psychic powers because she had to focus her will on survival.  
  
The Gammans were now disorganized and uncoordinated without their main mind.  
  
Samus let out a sigh of relief, moments before Adam just collapsed like  
  
Mother Brain. Samus looks over at Adam, startled at what happened.  
  
"A-Adam?!" Samus gets up and dashes over to his prone figure.  
  
"Lady...I exhausted myself. I cannot leave this spot just yet; I am  
  
undergoing self-repairs. Mother Brain did massive internal damage and is  
  
forcing me to replace my biological components. Circumstances this dire  
  
only come around when doing something this risky. I'm sorry, Lady, but...  
  
Adam...was not entirely human after he recieved his prosthesis. The  
  
technology that was used was far too advanced for proper implementation. As   
  
such, the left hemisphere of his brain was being replaced by a positronic   
  
one, by the same nanomachines that made his prosthesis possible. I still say   
  
that I am sorry. He will be almost totally machine after this." Samus shook   
  
her head.  
  
"How much of him was damaged?"  
  
"All major systems of bodily function. Only the parts of his brain that were  
  
not replaced are undamaged. This sacrifice is too grave. Humans are so...  
  
incomprehensible. I too, am part of Adam Malkovich, possibly a second mind,  
  
but I am unclear as to why." Samus stood up. She looked around. The place,  
  
didn't Mother Brain say that it was going to explode?  
  
"Two brains. A robotic one and a human one. You must be a self-building AI  
  
unit."  
  
"......Yes. I am a self-building AI program. At this time, while the  
  
nanomachinery are carrying out the commands given, I am taking necessary  
  
precautions in case my capacity to self-build is shut off or removed. I am  
  
taking all data from Adam's mind: past, present, and future...and putting  
  
it into my programming. There is an interesting scheme to his mind. There  
  
always was. It is an equation of military logic that surpasses any machine  
  
performance to date." Adam paused and looked up at Samus. "Why can a human   
  
do that? Why do humans prove superior to machines in the end?"  
  
"Well...I don't know that. Maybe..." As sudden as Mother Brain's defeat,  
  
a blast of red thunder strikes Adam's body and disintegrates half of it.  
  
Samus turns around and looks at something she didn't expect. Ridley again.  
  
This time, he was a machine. Covered in metal plates of some silver-like  
  
metal, and its red eyes glowed like Ridley's yellow ones. Its voice sounded  
  
like Ridley's but with Mother Brain's mechanical noise.  
  
"Y-O-U. FOLLOW ME. WE WILL END EVERYTHING HERE ON ZEBES. YOU WILL END.  
  
YOU DEFEATED MY CREATOR, YOU KILLED HIM. I WILL PROVE YOUR STUPID FRIEND  
  
WRONG." Samus looks at the robot Ridley, enraged.  
  
"He's not stupid!" The robot cocks its head to the side.  
  
"OH? THEN WHY DID HE GET IN MOTHER BRAIN'S WAY? DO YOU NOT SEE HER   
  
RECOVERING?" Samus looked around for a moment. Mother Brain was nowhere in  
  
sight, not even above them. "I THOUGHT SO. YOU DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO KILL  
  
HER. YOU ARE PATHETIC, BUT...YOU DID ALLAY THE SELF-DESTRUCT BY NOT DOING  
  
SO. WHICH MEANS...WE HAVE PLENTY OF TIME TO DO BATTLE. BUT, IN THE MEANTIME,  
  
I HAVE OUR SHIP READY TO LEAVE, IF SHE DARES TO TRIGGER THE DETONATION. I  
  
AM CAUTIOUS, UNLIKE ALL OF YOU RECKLESS FOOLS. COME TO THE SHIP. I WILL  
  
BE WAITING." Samus watched as the robot flew away. She had to get back to  
  
Crateria in order to reach the surface. She looks over at Adam.  
  
"I will be fine. The nanomachines build and rebuild each other; the body  
  
is composed of them. Self-repairs are almost complete."  
  
"Yeah, well...when you finish, get to my ship and get ready to pick me up."  
  
Adam looks at Samus.  
  
"Is that an order, Lady?" Samus smiles behind the visor.  
  
"Yeah. See you in space." With that, Samus dashed off to the long corridor  
  
back up to Crateria.  
  
-----------------------------------  
  
She had been in for the longest upward climb that she knew. After getting  
  
out of Tourian, she had to mind the weaving heights of the structure that  
  
the Gammans called Chozodia. It was supposed to be a temporary evacuation  
  
colony in case the Chozo were attacked from space. It was the first thing  
  
that Mother Brain had seized in her surprise attack from underground. Samus  
  
knew of the place well, she heard about it several times in the history of  
  
the attack on Zebes. The place felt so labrinthine to her, and really was  
  
huge. Most of the Zebesian Chozos could have lived here until reaching the  
  
Federation. She reached a door and scanned it for any presences. Behind it  
  
was definitely a high-power machine. She opened the door and entered.  
  
The robot was standing on a platform surrounded by an acid that wouldn't  
  
corrode the platform. Apparently, this was a Torizo arena. It glared at  
  
Samus and grinned as best as a robot could.  
  
"SO YOU DID COME. GOOD. WE WOULD DISGRACE YOU IF YOU DID NOT. MOTHER BRAIN  
  
WOULD HAVE TOLD ALL ABOUT YOUR...FAILURE TO ELIMINATE ALL OF US GAMMANS."  
  
Samus held up the cannon of her Power Suit at the robot.  
  
"This is it, then. They will all stay silent if just you are defeated."  
  
The robot nods.  
  
"LET'S ADD A TWIST TO THIS BATTLE. DO NOT USE YOUR POWER SUIT." Samus looks  
  
at the robot in shock for a moment.  
  
'Why do humans prove superior to machines in the end?' Samus remembered what  
  
Adam said just before this robot look-alike of Ridley rudely introduced  
  
itself. She knew what its motivation was now. It wanted to make sure that  
  
either she was superior to machines, or that it was superior to her. But  
  
how was she going to be able to fight without anything to use for a weapon?  
  
Pratically everything that was a weapon was also a machine.  
  
"What are the other conditions?" The robot looks downward at the acid as  
  
Samus' Power Suit opens and she steps out of it.  
  
"WHO FALLS INTO THAT, OR WHOEVER IS KILLED FIRST...LOSES. WE START NOW!"  
  
The robot charges forward at Samus, exhaling fire while running. Samus  
  
jumps to the side and watches the robot's tail. This one was not covered in  
  
poisonous spines. She had an advantage there, but it was still going to be  
  
difficult to do, seeing as how whatever it would swing into very well could  
  
be demolished. She jumps up toward the robot's head and grabs it by the neck.  
  
It turns its head to look at her with the right eye. Taking a chance and  
  
a gamble, she punches the eye, causing the cover to shatter. She grabs the  
  
ocular registry equipment and pulls on it. The robot squeals and screeches,  
  
trying to fling her off, but only loosening its parts that she has a hold on  
  
worse. It finally manages to throw her, but the whole ocular registry part  
  
(both of its eyes, in other words), gets ripped out, blinding it.  
  
Samus looks at her hand, cut and scratched in several places, and bleeding  
  
moderately. One of those few moments in which she wishes she could use her  
  
Power Suit. Wait...it was blind now. It wouldn't be able to know, would it?  
  
"HOW DARE YOU INSULT META-RIDLEY LIKE THIS!! YOU MINDLESS HUMAN!!!"  
  
The robot wildly swings its tail with full force, hoping to all Hell that it  
  
hits Samus and cleaves her in half. She ducks most of the swings, having to  
  
jump a couple of them, and then leaps in front of Meta-Ridley. She grabs it  
  
by the underside, near its tail, and heaves upward. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"  
  
Meta-Ridley seemed too heavy to lift, but she managed on the fourth time to  
  
get the momentum in her motion to hoist the robot off the ground a few inches  
  
and throw it towards the acid before it even came close to grabbing her. It   
  
landed a few feet from the edge, and skidded right next to the edge.   
  
Meta-Ridley temporarily forgot that it could not see anymore, and then noticed  
  
on its display that its tail was being damaged severely. It didn't feel like  
  
it was being ripped off, though.  
  
It was burning. Its tail was dipped inside of the acid pool, and Meta-Ridley  
  
screeched in rage and panic. It had lost and had no idea that it was even  
  
that close to the acid until it was too late. It pulled itself out of the   
  
acid and then...  
  
-----------------------------------  
  
Ridley woke up with a start. He had barely managed to activate Meta-Ridley,  
  
and then passed out. Did he blank out, so tired from that battle against  
  
Samus? Or was he so badly harmed that he died of his exhaustion. He looks  
  
around, still inside the chamber that he fought Samus in. Ridley sighed in  
  
relief. She only fought him until he was down for the count. He was still  
  
alive. He began to laugh again.  
  
"Dammit, she must have got some new improvments while here. Oh well, so she's  
  
got more power than me now...so what. I've still got brains." (ANd we IS  
  
StiLL LIVINNg.) "Uh. I didn't think she'd reach you that quickly, Mother  
  
Brain." (shE IS MMorE POWERFUL THAN You THINK. I am ONLY RECOVERING FROMM  
  
OUR BATTLE, AND INSIDE THE DEEP TOURIAN.) "So you had to be taken near the  
  
core...well, at least Samus won't find you, even if your powers are a lot  
  
more grounded for now." (groUNDED?! WHAT DOES YOU MMEAN!? I CAN rEACH YOUR  
  
MIND...A...N...D...I WILL MAKE THE OLD BASE...EXPLODE!!!) Klaxons blared all  
  
over the planet. Mother Brain triggered the detonator, and Ridley had almost  
  
no time to escape. He flew out of Norfair as fast as he could. He had to  
  
reach Chozodia or he'd go with the original base. It was not time for him  
  
to die yet. He willed it so badly that he not die yet.  
  
------------------------------------  
  
Even though Meta-Ridley acknowledged its loss, it was still far to furious  
  
to go down without being destroyed. Samus had proven Adam's point, and now  
  
it was time to destroy the berzerk robot before it does the same to Chozodia.  
  
She quickly donned her Power Suit and began firing Super Missile after  
  
Super Missile at Meta-Ridley. Most of them only dented its plating from the  
  
explosion impacts, and it just roared at her, exhaling fire. It couldn't use  
  
its tail anymore, that had flung off of it after one last giant swing that  
  
missed.  
  
'If my Super Missiles barely even hurt this thing, then what good would my  
  
regular Missiles do?! And beams only glance off of this robot!' She switched  
  
to her regular Missiles and began firing them as fast as she could. She  
  
noticed Meta-Ridley being pushed back by the explosions, back toward the acid  
  
pool that surrounded them. Even if it didn't hurt Meta-Ridley, she still had  
  
a plan. The acid had badly corroded its tail, so what if she got Meta-Ridley  
  
to fall in?  
  
Its feet were at the edge of the platform when it leapt into the air and  
  
just hovered there. She had only one Super Missile left.  
  
"DO OR DIE, ROBOT!" Samus launched the last round she had at Meta-Ridley,  
  
and it turned around to dodge, but too late, and fell into the acid, unable  
  
to continue flying. The pool that surrounded them was deep, and Meta-Ridley  
  
couldn't pull itself out. It continued to sink into the acid, further down,  
  
wasting away into a metal skeleton that soon began to crumble also.  
  
(So...IT IS OVERr. YOOU Have-DefAETED US ALL...FATE WORKS AGAINST US.   
  
MMAyBE WE WaS NOT MEANT TO HAVVE MeTROIDS...THE TERRIBLE DEFENSE OF THE CHOZO,  
  
IT COST ThEM EVrEYTHING.) Samus looked around. "Where are you, Mother   
  
Brain?!" (I am HIDiNG. YOU ARE the fIRSt THAt I FEAR.) "What did you mean,  
  
that the Metroids cost the Chozo everything?!" (THEY EVOLVED. THEY BECAME  
  
INVINCIBLE. THEY KILLED THE CHOZO...We DiD notHING TO THEmm.) Samus' heart  
  
sank. The Chozo weren't being obliterated by the Gammans? What was Gul'Gen  
  
hiding from her? 


	2. The Story of METROID

Chapter: "The Story of the METROID"  
  
(YOU...M...U...S...T...REALIze THIS. THE M-METROI-ID WAS CREATED by THE  
  
CHOZO FOR PROTECTION FROM US. WE KNEW EVERRYTHING ABOUT THEMM. WE FEARED  
  
THE METROID.) "Why did they turn against the Chozo?!" (LET ME FIRST...tELL  
  
YOU...W...H...Y...THE CHOZO WERE PROMPTED.) Samus faced the door, and her  
  
sight blurred into another vision. It was Crateria, the surface of Zebes.  
  
(THE TORIZO HAD FORSAkEN THE CHOZO, BECAUSE THE CHOZO h...A...d...WALLED ME  
  
AWay IN TOURIAN. THEY WOULD NOT LET THE TORIZO DESTROY ME. IN FEAR, THEY  
  
MADE METROID, TO KEEP THE GAMMANS THAT I CONTROL AWAY FROM ZEBES. THEY WERE  
  
FIRST MADE ON THE PLANET OF...T...A...l...l...O...n...FOUR. THE SUBSTANCE  
  
THEY USED TO ENGINEER METROID WAS WHAT GAVE METROID THE...P...O...W...E...R,  
  
TO evOLVE.) The scene changed to a deep underground cavern, glowing in blue.  
  
A giant, crab-like monster lashed at Samus, and the scene changed back to  
  
Chozodia. (THIS...K...I...l...L...e...d...ALL of THE CHOZO ON TALLON FOUR.)  
  
"...I don't understand. Why?" (IT WANTED TO FEED. IT IS ONLY A MERE   
  
ANIMAL, A WILD, LAB-MADE CREATION THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO TAMME. THEY WERE NOT  
  
F...I...N...I...S...H...E...D...WITH IT YET. eveN IF INCOMPLETE...IT WAS  
  
STILL ENOUGH.) "Still enough to deliberately kill its creators?! Why did  
  
they do something as foolish as to create these monsters in the first place?!  
  
Why didn't they just let the Torizo kill you?!" (I AM A BOMMB TRIGGER...DID  
  
YOU...FORGET?! IF I DIE...ZEBES GOES WITH me!!! ALL Of IT!!!)  
  
"So the Chozo kept the Torizo away from you because of your bomb...WAIT!"  
  
A quake rocks Chozodia. "TOURIAN IS THE BOMB THAT YOU PLANTED!!! And you  
  
set it off!" (HEhehehehHEHEheheheHEHe...THE tourIAN YOU WERE AT...WAS A  
  
SURFACE BOMB. IMAGINE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF...YOU ALLOWS THE ONNE AT THE CORE  
  
TO EXPLODE!?!) "Oh, Gods...I can't do that. I can't destroy Zebes."  
  
(SO...WHAT IS YOUR CHOICE? DO you FIGht MME? OR DO YOU leAVe Me IN PEACE?)  
  
"I...have no choice. I'll stop. You are broken and licking your wounds.  
  
This is enough for me." (RIDLEY...SHOW HER OUT.) Samus whirls around to  
  
face Ridley again. "Ah! I thought that I finished you!"  
  
"...No. I'm tougher than that. You merely tired me. Though I did fear that  
  
I was going to die. Come on. You must leave Chozodia and Zebes." Samus  
  
nodded. It was...for now, all over. The METROID presence was eliminated  
  
from Zebes, and Adam was waiting for her. They were going to go back to  
  
Alpha Centauri and Keaton.  
  
-------------------------------------  
  
Samus manned the controls of the ship and began to lift off from the surface  
  
of Zebes. She looks at Adam, who just sits beside her, as blank as the robot  
  
he now was. He turns his head and returns her gaze.  
  
"Lady?"  
  
"What is it?" Adam looks at the consoles that control the ship.  
  
"I don't want to go back. I have broken enough laws as it is. I am not in  
  
a human body anymore. I cannot...live in the Federation anymore." Samus  
  
looked at the screen. She understood. The anti-robot laws that Shivasta  
  
Noree, the Chairman of the Federation before Keaton, had implemented,   
  
forbade robots from existing anywhere within 500 light-years of the Alpha   
  
Sector of the galaxy. Why Shivasta did this was anyone's guess. Maybe it  
  
was because of the Reploids; the damage they all caused humanity. That was   
  
centuries ago...in the 2200's.  
  
Shivasta Noree was a human from Earth in those days. He had diplomacy with  
  
the Federation a secret from all kinds of sentience that were on Earth.  
  
When he revealed it to the human public, he was immediately elected to be  
  
the Chairman of the Federation by a landslide. The first thing he did? He  
  
had all robots and Reploids banished or dismantled. The Robotic Age was over,  
  
and humanity was going to the farthest ends of the galaxy within a decade.  
  
Adam would not be welcome anymore, and by law, if he did not leave within a  
  
week, he would be arrested and scrapped.  
  
"Where can you possibly go, Adam? I don't know of any community of robots.  
  
Can't Keaton rescind the laws, or make an exception?" Adam sighed.  
  
"No. He made exception enough when I had my left hand replaced with nano-  
  
machinery. He made exception enough when those same machines replaced half  
  
of my brain. He cannot rescind those laws because his superiors would kick  
  
him out of the Federation. He cannot twist them for one more exception,  
  
either. He has irritated them enough about me. If you are insistent that  
  
I stay, then I will resign myself to immediate disassembly." Samus grabbed  
  
Adam's jacket.  
  
"Adam, NO! I don't want you to do that! You were resourceful enough to  
  
survive Mother Brain and Meta-Ridley when they attacked you, why can't you  
  
work around the Federation?!" Adam grinned.  
  
"A government is a different enemy from pirates, Lady. You have to understand  
  
that governments will grab every card in a deck and use it all against you.  
  
They hold everything...and yes, I have to agree that they are all facist  
  
bastards." Adam's smile immediately turns back into a flat face. "I cannot  
  
work around them. As I said, they move the galaxy's laws and principles.  
  
They can even have you arrested for treason, being a liaison with me."  
  
Samus lets go of Adam's jacket and sits back at the controls.  
  
"..." Adam looks at the screen. A few ships were nearby. One of them was  
  
unmistakable...Hardy's 'Pork Roast'. "Com 346-A82, Samus Aran reporting back  
  
from Zebes...Hardy, do you get this message?" The screen changes to that of  
  
everyone's favorite obese officer...holding a sub sandwich in one hand, and  
  
looking off to someone off-screen.  
  
"Huh? Who is it? OH! Samus!" Hardy tries to hide his sandwich, much to  
  
Samus' laughter, he can't. "Well, anyway." Hardy bites into the sandwich.  
  
"Fif me oar rephort." Samus moves up closer to the screen.  
  
"What? Oh, my report." She sits back. "Okay. I successfully arrived at  
  
Zebes without incident and managed to rout out most of the Gammans and   
  
destroy all of the Metroids. The only one that I can't deal with is..."  
  
Hardy takes another bite of the sandwich, not seeing Keaton sneak up on him.  
  
"Iff?" Keaton pokes Hardy in the back and shouts:  
  
"HARDY!!!"  
  
"DOOH!" Hardy leaps up and tosses his sandwich up into the air, turning  
  
around to face Keaton.  
  
"Eating while talking to a date?" Hardy looks at Keaton angrily.  
  
"NO, I WASN'T!!! Samus is reporting back." Hardy turns around to face  
  
Samus again. "Anyway-" Hardy gets shoved off of the stool by Keaton.  
  
"Anyway, did you get rid of them all?! What about the Metroids?! Did you  
  
get one back for us to study?! Huh, huh, huh?!" Keaton passes out his  
  
questions like a little kid excited to see a parent home. Samus sighs.  
  
'Hopeless as always...' "No, no, and no." Keaton's look of eager glee  
  
fades away...into one of bewilderment.  
  
"What do you mean?" Samus crosses her arms. This, much to her hopes, would  
  
go without him shouting at her or Hardy.  
  
"First, I can't get rid of Mother Brain. She's got Zebes rigged to go boom  
  
if she's killed. Second, I got rid of all the Metroids on Zebes, but there  
  
are more on other worlds. Third, I didn't get one to study...yet." Keaton  
  
looks around for Hardy, who mysteriously managed to escape Keaton's gaze.  
  
(And that's saying something, as he has eyes on his antennas.)  
  
"Eh...? HARDY!!!!! WHERE THE HELL DID YOU WADDLE OFF TO NOW??!!"  
  
----------------------------------  
  
(From my hypothetical end of Zero Mission and moving on to Metroid Prime.  
  
Gaw, I think that my little inbetweener here is awesome. I don't know  
  
how well-written it is to other people, but I don't care. Oh, and the  
  
inclusion of Reploids doesn't mean that MMX is getting thrown into this, its  
  
only for a little historical reference...after all, I wanted to give the  
  
anti-robot laws a background, and Adam is effectively a robot at the end of  
  
this, anyway.) 


	3. The Invincible Killer

Chapter: "The Invincible Killer"  
  
Samus was inside the same dark cavern as she had seen in Chozodia...fear  
  
began to flow inside of her like the undulating waves of Phazon energy   
  
outside of her Power Suit. It was near her...behind her. Blocking off the  
  
entrance to the cavern. She turned around and saw the giant crab-like   
  
carapace of the Metroid Prime, the ultimate evolution of the METROID. It  
  
lashes at her with one of its arms, batting her into one of the walls of the  
  
cavern. She arms her Super Missiles and begins firing at it, circling it at  
  
a distance. Nothing was happening. She switches to her scanner and looks  
  
for a weakness on it. No weaknesses to any of her weapons detectable.  
  
"This is nuts! Mother Brain wasn't kidding when she said that it was   
  
something invincible! But that this killed the Chozo is hard to believe.  
  
It's just been in here, eating Phazon all its life...wait." Samus grabs a  
  
chunk of the solid Phazon that was in the cavern and tosses it at the Metroid  
  
Prime. It didn't visibly do anything, but she fired a Super Missile at the  
  
same spot.  
  
The carapace shredded apart as thought the Phazon from the rock softened it.  
  
"Now I get it. It not once made direct contact with the Phazon in that skin,  
  
because it knew its weakness...but...where's the beef? Was it only something  
  
em-" Samus gets hit by an invisible force and hits a rock column in the  
  
chamber. "What the hell was that?!" She switches her visors frantically.  
  
When she changed her sight to the X-Ray Visor, there it was. A large,   
  
glowing Metroid. And it was crawling at her like a spider with its tentacles.  
  
She fired several volleys of Super Missiles at it, all of them only holding  
  
the monster back from getting to her. It swishes one of the tentacles at her,  
  
dragging along the ground. The ground gushes out Phazon like blood, it was  
  
so close to the floor.   
  
Samus siderolls away from the tentacle, only to get hit by another one   
  
swinging at her. She hits the wall again and it bursts with liquid Phazon,   
  
also. The Metroid stamps the ground where it still stood with two of its   
  
tentacles and begins to absorb the energy from the liquid.  
  
"It's recharging. [ENERGY RESERVES MAXIMUM, SHIELD OVERLOADING] And so is...  
  
my Power Suit?!" The Energy Bar at the top of her visor begins to tick  
  
away rapidly. "SHIT! It's flushing the shield!" Samus aims her cannon at  
  
the Metroid Prime. "Time to give you a taste of what I'm going through!!"  
  
A large white beam of energy sails straight at the Metroid Prime. It takes  
  
in the blast, and Samus watches as the Metroid Prime pulses.  
  
What was it going to do with an influx of energy that massive? The Metroid  
  
looks in Samus' direction, and bullcharges at her. It shrieks madly, as  
  
though pain clearly wracked it. Grabbing Samus with one of its tentacles, it  
  
swings her around and flings her across the room...and then collapses. The  
  
insides of it were boiling and hissing. The Metroid Prime was either dead or  
  
dying, but either way, Samus didn't care. She had to get out now, because  
  
the Phazon shield was gone, and so was the ability to regain it.  
  
---------------------------------  
  
'Invincible Metroid Prime...it wasn't that tough. Mother Brain was harder  
  
to face. She nearly killed me.' Samus thought to herself as Keaton both  
  
congratulated and berated her for her mission report. Again, she had no  
  
Metroids for them to study. Again, she destroyed them all. Again, she  
  
defeated the Gammans that were in her way. Only weeks after defeating them  
  
at Zebes were they out to collect more Metroids on Tallon IV. Something that  
  
they accidentally created using the Phazon had destroyed most of their ship,  
  
however, and most of the Gammans that were on it, too. Still too many people  
  
called them the 'Space Pirates' when they had a name. She wondered...how did  
  
Meta-Ridley return? It wasn't very possible, unless Ridley made another one.  
  
'Still...I hope that they were the last ones. I think I'll go crazy if I   
  
have to hunt Metroids again...especially after...finding out that they were  
  
the ones that rendered the Chozo to near extinction.' Samus hears a familiar  
  
voice clear his throat.  
  
"Old Bird. Why did you lie to me about the Gammans?" Gul'Gen sighed.  
  
"I couldn't help it. They...well...we...didn't know that they wouldn't  
  
attack what feared them. We created the Metroids because we didn't want to  
  
lose Zebes. I guess that it was our fate. We should not have gone there.  
  
We should not have lived there. I am...afraid that we have made the gravest  
  
mistakes of all that are part of the Federation." Samus leans on a wall.  
  
"You're damn right about that. Ever since Biologic Space Labs found them,  
  
they have been captivated with the obsession of researching them. Hell, even  
  
the Federation wants one for study. These things are dangerous, they nearly  
  
killed all of your people, and those that fled are hopefully re-establishing  
  
themselves inside of the Federation's fleet jurisdiction. If not, we could  
  
see all of you become extinct."  
  
"Samus-san...I am sorry for what I had to put you through. Your real training  
  
and purpose...it was not to defend us from the Gammans. You cannot defeat  
  
Mother Brain alone, and this I believe is proven. Your real purpose...was...  
  
to erase our mistake." Samus stops leaning on the wall. "You were trained  
  
to kill Metroids."  
  
"So that's why Metroid Prime was so easy in comparison to Mother Brain."  
  
Gul'Gen nodded. "That's why I have to go destroy them all. Not a single  
  
one left alive, is that it?" Gul'Gen nodded again. "You make me sick, Old  
  
Bird. You ask of me to commit the genocide of an artificially-created   
  
lifeform, just so that you have nothing left of your tracks to cower about?!"  
  
"Samus-san-" Samus grabs Gul'Gen by the neck.  
  
"IT'S NOT THAT SIMPLE! The Federation and B.S.L want Metroids to study them  
  
now, and that puts a crimp in my side!! Corporations and governments are  
  
very difficult enemies to face, and very different from Metroids and Gammans!  
  
Do you think I want to lose everything?! Huh?!"  
  
'No...but you have no choice.'  
  
------------------------------------  
  
(I don't like how short I made this. I love everything else. I dunno why,  
  
but I find myself able to characterize struggle to a slight T. And it some-  
  
how feels uplifting to have some of the characters vent, especially the  
  
still young and hero-elevated Samus, who doesn't want to be a savior of the   
  
galaxy. Gul'Gen and his defeatist "give in to fate" nature is kind of cut   
  
short, but I still think that I can implement it very well later on.) 


	4. Private Enemy Number One

There were three Prolouge Chapters before this one, and I love every minute  
  
of action that I put into this new fan-fic. This one is the true sequel to  
  
"Return of the Queen", and aside of the Ginyus and the planet trade, I'm gonna   
  
kill off the other DBZ stuff for this fan-fic. It has already come and gone,  
  
well, briefly, and I'm not bringing that back until the next installment.  
  
Now begins the real second piece of "Metroid Saga":  
  
"A Different Enemy"  
  
--------------------------------------  
  
Chapter 1: "Private Enemy Number 1"  
  
Samus waited inside of the elevator going down impatiently. The Federation  
  
recieved cloned Metroids from B.S.L and had captured Royce Felder, the Queen  
  
Metroid. They were all being held inside of this space station. It was as  
  
large as Alpha Centauri, and was all research facility and containment cells.  
  
Samus wasn't permitted to enter any security doors past level grey.  
  
The station itself looked strikingly like Chauda on the inside. Either it  
  
was a former B.S.L outpost, or it was still in possession of that company,  
  
and the Federation was being loaned it for use. Samus thought that she could  
  
easily map out the appearance of it. What struck her the strangest was that  
  
the station was totally empty aside of the docks. No signs of life, and if  
  
the Metroids were anywhere, it was the sectors below, where the simulated  
  
environments were. There, the Metroids were contained. If Samus had her say,  
  
she would have Adam turn the self-destruct on and escape. But Adam   
  
disregarded her fastball tactics for something a bit less...obvious. He had  
  
requested her to invade the station silently and uplink him to the commputers.  
  
He would then let the Metroids loose, and validate a reason to attack them.  
  
The Navigation Room wasn't very far away. It was just beyond that single  
  
grey shutter. Samus fired at the lens-shaped door and it peeled away into  
  
the tunnel. She walked inside and saw that everything was...disturbingly  
  
exactly like Chauda. She entered a series of codes and a large purple lens  
  
appeared on the screen.  
  
"Lady, I don't think that this was such a good idea now. The scientists have  
  
all evacuated and security was called in. Hopefully Hardy can bide you time."  
  
Samus waved her hand.  
  
"Yeah, so what do we do? We can't miss this opportunity, you know. It was  
  
Lex's idea that I do what Old Bird requested." Adam's lens shifted.  
  
"And it was her pleading to you that did it, too?" Samus folded her arms.  
  
"No. It was Ridley's subsequent fit that followed. I don't want to see any  
  
of them gone. Especially Ridley." Adam's lens shifted again.  
  
"Please, for sake of future reference...call him Ryu." Another shift. "I  
  
have uploaded the map of this sector, and given you a security alert program.  
  
Your mission is to open the containment cells without detection. If you  
  
do get spotted, shift into the SA-X and escape. Any objections, Lady?"  
  
Samus shook her head and left out the other side of the room. This part was  
  
different from Chauda. It was a long corridor with three doors on the right-  
  
hand wall. All three were different colors. One was blue, one was red,  
  
and the last one green. None of them could be opened without accessing the  
  
locks that held them shut tight. Of course, they could be forced open, but  
  
Samus knew the risks of that. It would bring up an unnecessary alert.  
  
Yet in this hallway, behind one of the doors, was the controls for the area  
  
containments. All of the elevators leading into the different holding areas  
  
were shut down on the deck side. This was to lock the Metroids in, so that  
  
none of them could get out. They could easily go between sectors, but they  
  
couldn't leave. Samus had to turn on the elevators manually in order to  
  
allow them to pass through, because Adam wouldn't risk being harmed or  
  
deleted by any internal countermeasures. She had to take a guess and fired a  
  
Super Missile at the green door. It opened. No loud or silent alerts.  
  
'What a relief, the security system is off. The locks are still on, though.'  
  
Samus looked inside. The color coded panels of the other two were inside the  
  
room, but nothing else. "Oh, real cute. Sax could have busted through just  
  
as easily, and causing a lot of destruction in her wake. That would call  
  
the guards." Samus opened the locks of the other two doors and checked the  
  
room with the blue door.  
  
Nothing in here. She moves on to the red one. What was inside surprised her.  
  
Three guards. All of them were shot by some kind of energy weapon, and they  
  
were all dead, too. They were supposed to monitor the systems of the sectors,  
  
as well as bring up an alarm if someone forced the doors. Everything was  
  
turned off except for the remote turrets. Samus walks up to the panel and  
  
checks the IFF program. It didn't make any sense to her. The coding was  
  
in some strange language that not even the computer could possibly recognize.  
  
But it could recognize it. The directives that she could discern were that  
  
the only ones not to be shot were...  
  
------------------------------------  
  
"I hope you know full well what happens if we botch this, Kraid. Mother  
  
Brain gave you a human body once she found out that Ridley has one now."  
  
A large Russian man puffs a cigar and exhales. His outfit was similar to  
  
Heidegger's, a green general's outfit, but it had a yellow front on the  
  
jacket. He looks at a short, pudgy man in a brown business suit.  
  
"Da? Zo vhat eef vee fail. Zeh Metroids are loose, comrade. Zat vas all  
  
vee needed to do. Now, vhat say you about vee going back to Altri, da?"  
  
Stern-faced, Kraid looks at the new elite recruit. He was supposed to take  
  
Ridley's place, but he didn't do that well of a job, not even in Mother   
  
Brain's eyes. "Nyet...you vant to catch Metroid. Ho vell, your lose. I am  
  
going though, comrade. Eef you die...you die." The small fat guy looks  
  
around nervously.  
  
"M-my company has ordered me to t-take a Metroid back to them. I'm n-not  
  
g-going back on that!" Kraid grabs the fat guy's sleeve and walks back to  
  
the ship that is right next to Samus' in the dock.  
  
"Beh...Palmer...value your life. Your boss has nuhteenk for you. He cancel  
  
your department, and for vhat? Vun sabotaged launch of rocket? In old   
  
country, vee just say ho vell and launch anozer. Vee vill not be zo stingee.  
  
Vee vill let you come back to him, and vith a Metroid...but later, when  
  
Samus is not here." Palmer looks at Kraid.  
  
"Oh, so is that what you're worried about?" Kraid looks at Palmer irritated.  
  
"Vurried? She iz zee only ting zat can stop us. She defeated Muzzer Brain  
  
and let Zebes go boom. She does not care about our lives." The hatch shuts  
  
and the Gamman passenger shuttle flies away. An Omega Metroid spots Samus'  
  
ship and stomps toward it, growling.  
  
'This thing...Sister Al-ken was killed by another Metroid near this thing.  
  
I will turn it to scrap. I will destroy it. Then...it has no way back.'  
  
The Omega Metroid starts to scratch the hull of the ship savagely, only  
  
causing paint to peel or dents where it slammed the ship.  
  
"Lady! The Metroids are already loose! That's why they were evacuating!  
  
I spotted a Gamman ship leaving the port, but now our ship is being attacked  
  
right now! Come back here at once!" Samus recieves the transmitted message  
  
and dashes for the docking bay elevator. Torn up and smashed.  
  
"Shit. Looks like this thing is of no use. Sax, I didn't want to bring you  
  
out for anything, but it looks like I'll have to." Samus focuses on being  
  
her counterpart, sailing up the elevator shaft as an ice blue blob. She  
  
reforms into the SA-X and looks at the Omega Metroid tearing up the ship.  
  
"HEY!" The Omega Metroid turns around. Samus arms her Super Missiles and  
  
begins firing at its stomach. It doubles over after five rounds, getting hit  
  
by one in the face, hurling it backward and against the ship.  
  
"Lady, watch it! You're rocking the ship!" Samus ignores Adam's color  
  
commentary and circles the Omega Metroid. It stomps slowly towards her,  
  
pissed off enough as it was by the sight of her ship, it was even angrier  
  
that Samus was actually hurting it. She switches back to herself and then  
  
launches a fully charged Diffusion Missile at it. The wave of cold freezes  
  
the tuft of hairs just under its head, but doesn't really do anything else.  
  
"Right. So it'll be like last time, huh?" Samus fires beam blasts at it,  
  
aiming for the stomach again. The blasts that came out of the cannon lanced  
  
at the Metroid, three of them waving in a sine pattern, glittering from their  
  
frigidity. One after another they struck, the Metroid screams and backs up to  
  
the dock elevator. Its body seemed to get stiffer with each step backwards,  
  
and it collapsed to the ground, its breathing labored. She wasn't going to  
  
kill it. Not yet. She had to find out just what the hell was going on.  
  
She had to find out who was behind the release of the Metroids on this  
  
station.   
  
Whatever happened, she didn't think that it was a fortunate sign. True,  
  
one lucky break after another happened...but an IFF that didn't make any  
  
sense?  
  
'What the hell is Kraid doing still alive? Who the hell is Palmer? Why the  
  
hell does the IFF system not target me or the Metroids? Someone is setting  
  
all of this up. I have only one person to suspect...  
  
'Old Bird.'  
  
-------------------------------------  
  
Samus took the time out to relax after getting back. She and Lex were out  
  
at Applebee's, and Ryu was insistent on staying home to play a game he found   
  
on the internet called "3700 AD". (Author's Note: this is an actual game,   
  
folks. Go to http://www.3700ad.com if you want to take a look. It ain't  
  
finished yet, but who cares? It's fun.) Samus had told Lex that she needed  
  
a breather before jumping into the political arena, something she was   
  
beginning to think of as interesting.  
  
"Ugh, getting into politics shows just how old you are." Samus looks at Lex  
  
evilly. This brat of a sister always had some kind of one-liner to kill her  
  
R&R.  
  
"Oh, you are so going down for that. Don't think that I'm a geezette losing  
  
my hair just yet, because I'm not going into it full-time. I've got a bone  
  
to pick with Gul'Gen." Lex takes a drink from her water glass and puts it  
  
down. Houston walks up to the two of them, holding the plates of the food  
  
that they ordered. The getup that he wore made Samus think that he was  
  
seriously jumping out of the Bounty Hunter's Guild; he was decked out in a  
  
full work uniform for the restaurant.  
  
But Houston wasn't qutting the Guild. Not ever. He was Samus' main partner,  
  
and her older brother. He didn't want to leave her alone and in danger, but  
  
this time, he had no choice. Commissions were slow after Akyasuma's arrest  
  
and escape. The Gammans weren't acting up as usual...at least, not that  
  
Houston knew about what happened. He was a low-class bounty hunter who got  
  
paid big when he got involved with his sister, and did a lot of temp work  
  
when things were slow like this.   
  
Samus decided to live at his apartment to do a lot of his personal   
  
housekeeping (something that isn't his strong point), and ended up finding out   
  
she moved in with a relative. It was a shock to her at first when Ridley left  
  
her that message telling her everything about her brother. She waited for him  
  
to sit after putting the plates down, but he just took off back to the   
  
kitchen. Lex piped up and got Samus' attention. She turned her head and  
  
looked over at Lex.  
  
"Why? Is he doing something bad?" Samus sighed.  
  
"I think so. He's consorting with the Gammans in order for my job of  
  
eradicating the Metroids to be easier. But...they aren't the bunch to talk  
  
to for stuff like this. What if they got a Metroid and took off with it?"  
  
Lex shook her head.  
  
"I dun think so. They barely had enough time to get away from you finding  
  
them." Lex rubs her eyes. "As for Palmer...well...I only know that he's  
  
the Shinra Head of Space Development. Musta got fired. Me, I'm gonna go  
  
to Midgar and work with the Turks someday." Samus laughs.  
  
"Like they need another ditz on the team?"  
  
"HEY!!! I'm no DITZ! I'm not like Elena!" (A's N: Conversly, I am dragging   
  
FF7 into the mix, just to see how it goes.) "After all, everything about her  
  
is bad...except for her manga. Kawaii, it's so funny and neat-o-jet!"  
  
"Fugh...do I have to listen to the latest little comic that she made?"  
  
Lex shakes her head.  
  
"No, you already read it." Samus looks at the paper. She reads the strip  
  
called 'Turks Galore!' and then looks at Lex. She grins at Lex and throws the  
  
paper at her.  
  
"Very funny, Lex. Very funny." Houston comes back from serving ten other  
  
tables in record time and sits between the two of them.  
  
"Uh, why aren't you eating?" Samus sticks a fork into the baked potato that  
  
sits on the edge of the plate and then takes a bite.  
  
"Hm. We'll come here more often. Anyway, I wanted to tell you that-" Houston  
  
gets up to serve another order. "Ergh. Oh well. He wants his cash for   
  
today, I guess." Lex grins and cuts a big strip from the steak on her plate.  
  
This wasn't too bad of a break for Samus. After all, she didn't have to piss  
  
herself off about everything just yet. Houston was too busy to be her wall to  
  
talk to. Samus spots Hardy walking in and waves him over. "Oy! Hardy!"  
  
Hardy looks around in bewilderment. Was Keaton here, of all places?  
  
He spots Samus waving and then waddles over to her.  
  
"Hello. What did you want?" Samus shrugs and sticks the potato again.  
  
"To talk. After all, Houston's overworking himself for a Cred." Hardy  
  
chuckles. "Anyway, you did good with keeping the cops back away from me."  
  
"It was nothing. They already saw that the Metroids were loose and that  
  
their turrets for the restricted areas were firing on them. Even security  
  
was called out of the station. They don't know what the hell happened."  
  
Samus looks at Hardy, swallowing a bite from her chicken.  
  
"Gammans happened. They let the Metroids loose and then ran off. Didn't  
  
even take one." Hardy's face turns from calm to a nervous grin. Did Samus  
  
just say that?  
  
"Uh-heh. The Pirates are out again. But we've tried locating their bases  
  
ever since Ater organized them one last time. We found every single one in  
  
the galaxy. Unless they're out of the galaxy, something that I highly doubt,  
  
they've gone mobile. But what can they use for a base?" Lex looks at the  
  
paper that sat in front of her. On the front page was an article about  
  
Shinra.  
  
"Uhm...how about Midgar or Junon?" Lex hands Hardy the paper. Poring over  
  
the article numerous times, his hands begin to tremble. "What? Did I just  
  
do something to help?"  
  
"yes..." Hardy whispers. "You did. See here. Shinra wants to research  
  
alternate energy methods, but ever since they heard about the Metroid   
  
research, they have wanted to test out their own theory alongside of several  
  
others that were proposed." Hardy looks at Lex and Samus. They both had   
  
their jaw dropped, and see-food spilled out of Lex's mouth. "I guess that   
  
I'll need to tell you later, Samus. Right now...I've got a few calls to make  
  
before talking to Keaton about this."  
  
----------------------------------  
  
(I have wanted to do a Final Fantasy 7 and Metroid crossover since I was in  
  
high school. This installment of "Metroid Saga" will be the first of those  
  
kind. I don't know where it is going to go, but I hope it doesn't flop down  
  
like "Return of the Queen".  
  
Odd. I don't know who to make the real villian of this fan-fic. It won't  
  
be Sephiroth or JENOVA, I'll say that much.) 


End file.
